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Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Hi, Thanks for this thread. I have a 5.5 mo and am trying to establish some sort of supply/backup in the freezer (not a deep freezer). Luckily I checked my frozen milk after only a few oz pumped (though it was enough to turn my bub off the bottle!!). I feel so much for those of you who have 200 oz or so...

Anyway, my own 'testing' is ongoing, so far:
non-scalded refrigerated milk lasts 3 days (in a pinch 4, disgusting at 5).
scalded refrigerated milk still good at 9 days!
however, both non-scalded and scalded milk is still tasting good at 9 days....

I am wondering why the non-scalded frozen milk still tastes good?! I was wondering if it was because I froze it immediately (without cooling first, and then pressed the "quick freeze" button on my freezer). i also reduced the temperature in my freezer a bit. (I did all this after my googling/research on lipase). The other thing is that I am digging out chunks of the frozen milk to test it and immediately defrosting and tasting, so perhaps if I left it to defrost overnight in the refrigerator the lipase would kick in and it would taste disgusting? I'm wondering this because in practice what I'm likely to do with frozen milk is do exactly that (leave it in the refrigerator to defrost). Just asking this here because I have very little of my experimental milk left so wondering if anyone else has worked this out?

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Hello,

Thought I'd chime in again, I can't believe this thread is still going strong! Glad to see we can all help each other out so much.

The Lawrence & Lawrence book does talk about freezing and lipase activity, and yes the colder the temperature the more slowed down lipase activity will be. Milk at milk banks is stored at below -70 C degrees which is unbelievably cold. A deep freezer (- 20 C) is colder than a freezer attached to a fridge, and a deep freezer also doesn't have a freeze/thaw cycle.

The milk in my deep freezer is so cold I can't handle the frozen bags of milk for long with my bare hands! I have it cranked to the lowest temp setting too.

My Little Reverse Cyclers
*DS born July 2006, nursed 3 yrs 10 mos!
*DD born January 2011, happily nursing and bucking the bottle just like big brother
*One Angel baby we sadly never met July 2009

Happily married to an amazing man who puts up with all my craziness since 1999.

NEW BEGINNINGS needs personal stories from breastfeeding mothers about the normal course of breastfeeding. Tell us what helped you cope with challenges such as sore nipples, plugged ducts, frequent nursing, colic, premature birth, fatigue, or a baby with a chronic health problem. Describe how you breastfed while being treated for a chronic condition such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Write about your experience with breastfeeding a child older than one year or using loving guidance with your preschooler or older child.

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When I was first struggling with discovering my frozen milk was all "bad" because of lipase I was SO frustrated by the lack of practical advice from other moms who'd been through this and it took me awhile to finally find the fantastic resource on this forum. I would have LOVED to see a practical article from moms who had been there.

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

I am so glad I found this post! My dd is 11 weeks old and we have been trying to get her to take a bottle of ebm for weeks w/ no luck. The other day I discovered my milk has the soapy taste, no wonder she wont drink it from a bottle, it's gross. I'm going to get a bottle warmer and try to scald it that way. I have about 50oz in the freezer that I'm going to have to throw out. I finally got my dd to take a bottle this morning using freshly pumped milk.

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Hello,

I think something in New Beginnings would be great. I know that whenever I have explained Lipase to a friend or family member they look at me stunned and say so many working/pumping moms would have probably thrown in the towel if they discovered that "problem".

Digging through the boards is one thing, the info is there if you look for it. An article in New Beginnings would be great and hopefully easier to find.

Should we submit our articles separately but try to do so at the same time?

My Little Reverse Cyclers
*DS born July 2006, nursed 3 yrs 10 mos!
*DD born January 2011, happily nursing and bucking the bottle just like big brother
*One Angel baby we sadly never met July 2009

Happily married to an amazing man who puts up with all my craziness since 1999.

Re: Scalding breastmilk due to excessive Lipase

Yeah! I wanted to report that I think I FINALLY figured out how to successfully freeze my EBM.

- Used a bottle warmer to scald to 145 for one minute (thanks to those of you who were braver than I at experimenting and figured out this technique!!)
- Froze some tests - 2oz frozen in Lansinoh bags, lying flat, inside ziploc freezer bags, and then inside a plastic container and in the deep freezer that my DH went and bought a couple weeks ago just for milk storage.
- Just thawed out the first test - it had been in the freezer for 1.5 weeks.
- After thawing it still tasted sweet, and even better DS drank it down without fighting or the "yuck" face he used to have with my frozen milk.

I've been avoiding work travel and know that I'll need to travel for work in a couple months. I still need to do more tests to feel really confident about being able to rely on a freezer stash, but for the first time since I discovered that my frozen milk was yuck and DS wouldn't drink it, I'm actually feeling optimistic about being able to have a freezer supply.